walnut caterpillars in Cleveland, Texas

Asked September 18, 2014, 9:23 PM EDT

government housing projects there are about six pecan trees several types of oaks and sicamore .there are millions of walnut caterpillars in a small area eating not only the pecan trees but all the trees the housing authority says its not their problem. who can help the trees and us.

Thank you ,Darrell Beard.

832-917-9810

Liberty CountyTexas

1 Response

The only way to control them is by spraying which is not easy to do. There are some very safe products such as Spinosad or Bt which will not harm folks, but the challenge is finding someone to spray them. The silver lining is that the worms will NOT kill the trees. They do take the leaves off the trees, but the trees will survive. Also, the worms should be toward the end of their life cycle, meaning they are about done feeding. So I would tell you, that you can probably just leave them alone.